thanks Iron Addict

After reading alot of your posts , I have done some huge changes to my routine. I was doing a 4 day split with 3 sets for almost all exercises. I have changed it to 3 days a week, push-legs-and pull. Have dropped all sets to 2, (not including a couple of warmup sets here and there). I do my two sets with more intensity then before, especially the last one, I give it my ALL!! let me tell you, my strength gain over the past 3 weeks have been INCREDIBLE!! i truely feel like I'm in the sweet spot. I added almost 5lbs to almost every exercise this week!! I have been keeping all my progress in a journal to make sure I always try to lift a bit more weight, or do and extra set or 2 every week.

It was really hard to get in my head that less might actually be better for me, but now I'm just laughing in the gym when I'm lifting more every week. My friend just started to workout with me for the first time ever in his life, he is in his second week with me doing the exact same thing and he is also making really good gains.

If you are not feeling gains in your current routine from one week to the next, I would really advise in chaning it. Before my gains came, but slowley, now I feel like I'm just throwing the weight on every week. WICEKD STUFF MATE!!!

true this routine might not be the best for everyone, but right now it's doing great for me!

I'll be sure to put up some before and after pics sometime in December. I'm 6'2 200lbs right now, let see what this body can really do!

Glad to see you have found a format that is working for you. Your head would spin if you knew how many times I have heard the same basic thing in emails, PM's, and online. No, this style of training isn't best for everyone, but many, many people see huge improvements when switching to it. keep us updated on your progress.

I must also give props to Iron Addict, I've been doing the hardcore hardgainers w/o split w/all the hardcore lifts (squat, deads, chins, wt'd dips, heavy abs for about 3 weeks. The workout is an absolute bitch, but nothing feels better than the feeling of your forearms going out on your last set of 225 straight leg d/l and adding wt to that bar weekly.

IA, I re-started the HIT routine a couple weeks ago and actually was able to gain back all that size and strength that I had lost during all of that experimenting. And I'm only doing 1 exc/bodypart and 2 sets/exc, except for tri's and bi's.

My question is knowing that for my sets I do the first one rep shy of failure and the second to complete failure, what if for example I don't have anybody to spot me for that last set on say BB bench. and I can't go to failure safely. Can I just go one rep shy on it and then do some beyond failure work, or is that a lot different?

wts are heavy as you can go w/good form....realizing an incremental wt increase in each exercise each workout. Don't sweat the small stuff, just get big!

Last edited by SHUTUP&TRAIN; 09-26-2003 at 01:15 PM.

09-30-2003, 06:54 PM

PC1

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Originally posted by Jergo IA, I re-started the HIT routine a couple weeks ago and actually was able to gain back all that size and strength that I had lost during all of that experimenting. And I'm only doing 1 exc/bodypart and 2 sets/exc, except for tri's and bi's.

My question is knowing that for my sets I do the first one rep shy of failure and the second to complete failure, what if for example I don't have anybody to spot me for that last set on say BB bench. and I can't go to failure safely. Can I just go one rep shy on it and then do some beyond failure work, or is that a lot different?

Thanks for all your help.

If you don't have a power cage to train in, you could always build a small rack out of 2 by 4's that would substitute as a rack or support so that when you fail on the bench, you can just put the weight down and crawl out of the bench.

The other alternative, if you're benching less than 300 for reps, is once you fail with the weight and the bar is on your chest, push the bar up off your chest a bit and down toward your waist, then sit up and roll it down onto your thighs in the process. It's not pretty, and sometimes hurts a bit, but I trained for years that way when using weights in the 150-225 pound range. In fact, I've been stuck several times in the past with 270 when working toward a 300 lb bench press and got out of it doing just this technique. Again, not pretty, and it hurts going over the abs a bit, .......... BUT it's great incentive when going for that last "iffy" rep.

Shutup And Train, do you find it hard to recover hitting 3 full body workouts every week? That's the only thing keeping me from trying your workout is that after a leg workout , I am usually sore for about 5 days, same with most other body parts, so I was wondering if you just fight through the pain and do it, and if so do you keep seeing increases?

BTW I traing HIT to failure MWF if that helps, split into Push/Pull/Legs

Just a quick update. This week, I've deadlifted 300x13, benched 225x14. Squats will come on Friday, but I'll be around 205x17-18. Squats are low I know, but I'm still recovering from a ruptured achilles, and have only within the past 6 months or so even had the equipment to do squats, so I have some catching up there I know.

I'm 43, and have never, naturally moved that kind of weight around for those reps on bench and deadlifts. I'm doing the pulling/pushing/legs split, each once only a week. After doing an HIT set, I drop some weight and do a set of very slow negatives, for about 8 reps. And that's it, I move on.

If I hadn't stumbled onto your posts here, I'd still have it in my mind to do multiple sets, and bench 225x10, deadlift 300x10 and squat 205x12 for my peak sets.

I really look forward to each training session and setting new personal bests each time out. Without question, the best natural training zone I've ever experienced.

Not the rest pause that IA/DC describe. I'm going from memory a bit here, but I recall them talking about gulping down like 10-15 deep breaths on a fairly long pause.

When I benched for example, I wanted to do 14 reps this week, having done 13 the week before. I don't hold my breath over multiple reps, I breathe normally for most reps. But here I did 8 reps, paused for 2 quick breaths, did 4 more, paused for 3 quick breaths, did 2 reps. When I deadlifted, I ground out 10 reps, took 3 quick breaths, did 3 more reps.

I found that when I'm benching and near failure, I don't get a "break" by pausing longer. Locking the bar out on top of the lift, I'm still experiencing severe lactic acid build up in my chest/delts/tri's and the longer I hold it, the more lactic acid I get. So pausing longer for me doesn't buy me any additional reps. In fact, I lose 1 or 2. Deadlifts, I worry about just standing there holding 300 lbs, and pulling a muscle in my back. Squats are a little different for me, locking out on top does ease the fatigue a bit but I suppose out of habit, I've just not tried the longer pauses they describe yet. I'm sure I'll have to once I get up over 20 reps though....... I think it will help me avoid cardiac failure. Now where's my prune juice and Geritol, dammit